Metamatics & Norken
My Favorite Kind of Irrelevance – The Best of Metamatics and Norken
Hydrogen Dukebox Records
One man – many bands. That’s the bio for Lee Anthony Jude Norris. He seems to work in slightly different styles under the names Man-Q-Neon, Metamatics, Nacht Plank, and Norken. He’s assembled his own retrospective here, focusing on the Metamatics and Norken identities. Both are layered worlds of ambient sound, mildly Drum and Bass feeling, and spacey in the way we thought all 21st century music ought to sound. We open with an intriguing remix of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.” The ambient version loses the bitter fire of the original, and scrutinizes the melody under an electronic microscope, seeking its intrinsic value, stripped of social commentary. John Foxx, formerly of Ultravox! joins on two cuts, “Ty Canal” and “Do It.” Interestingly, John Foxx’s website is entitled “Metamatics.” A little digging reveals they both came up with the name independently, and have combined forces rather than feed lawyers. It adds to the general mystery of the electronic music world, where there are few noticeable stars, just endless albums with odd liner notes and cool graphics. This is a worthwhile CD for the chill minded.
Hydrogen Dukebox: http://www.hydrogendukebox.com/
